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Experiments in Physical Geography – the 2nd semester begins

The 2nd semester really got under way yesterday with the 6/7 hours of non stop fun in the University of Liverpool’s New ‘Central Teaching Laboratory’ (CTL). 54 students converged on the 1st floor Environmental and Archaeological Sciences Laboratory for the 1st Year modules Experiments in Physical Geography (ENVS154) and Theory and Experiments in Earth Surface Processes (ENVS163) modules meeting the teaching team; Rich Chiverrell, Andy Plater, John Boyle, Andreas Lang and Janet Hooke ably supported by the very excellent postgraduate demonstrators and technicians from the CTL and Geography. Using new equipment and purpose-designed experiments the class worked in small groups (5-6 people) on 10 concurrent practical sessions, bringing life to flumes, river catchment simulation, XRF’s, microscopes, laser granulometers, flame photometers and spectrometers, sediment deformation equipments, more new shiny toys than you can shake a stick at……

The exercises explored how

How do variations in dirt cover on ice affects melting rates?

How can we use lake sediment records to measure both long-term soil erosion
rates and carbon sequestration?